Patching-up time.
I am very proud of myself for finishing this page today, because today was also for cleaning, grocery shopping, and cooking in preparation for my baby’s FIRST BIRTHDAY PARTY. Where did this year go? Anyway, she’s the best and tomorrow she gets to try chocolate cake.
The full page is below, and it does contain some blood, as expected, and some medical stuff (stitches, evidence of long-term hunger), if that bothers you.
You can also find this page on Patreon by signing up as a free or paid member. Paid members get bonus art!
Forward to Page 50 (forthcoming)
Image description:
A five-panel, mostly black-and-white comic page.
Panel 1: Resunotek has set up a camp in the forest. Her tent, a canvas thrown over a simple frame of branches, is set up behind her. She’s spread her straw cloak out on the ground in front of it, and Ichiro lies facedown on it, one arm folded under his head and the other extended limply out. He’s dressed in just his kimono and trousers, and the knife still protrudes from his back. Resunotek sits behind him, closer to the tent, legs crossed and studying him with a frown. She’s taken the tunic he wore under his armor, still stained with old blood, and is tearing it down the middle with both hands. Her basket sits by one knee. Off to the right, her little cooking pot sits on a small fire in a circle of stones, and smoke rises from it.
Resunotek: A samurai.
Panel 2: A close-up of Resunotek’s hands, tattooed with woven patterns, as she lifts Ichiro’s kimono to examine the wound on his back. Old and new blood stain his skin and clothing. Where her skin meets his, tiny, bright green filaments appear.
Resunotek: The abbess would tell me to leave him alone.
Samurai are dangerous.
Panel 3: She has rolled Ichiro onto one side, and he is visible from the neck down to his hips. He is very thin, with his ribs visible, and his muscles have a lanky, stringy quality. Resunotek sits behind him, pressing a bloody cloth to his back with one hand and tugging at the ties of his hakama with the other.
Resunotek: Or maybe he’s just a bandit.
Don’t samurai eat white rice and meat from the mainland? Even in winter?
Panel 4: From above, we see Resunotek stitch up the wound with a needle and thread, in a similar to that of Panel 2. The same green filaments appear where her fingers touch him.
Resunotek: It’s deep.
He might die anyway. Then it won’t matter what he is.
Panel 5: Ichiro huddles naked on the straw cloak in the dark, indicating he’s been placed in the tent. His knees are drawn up to his chest. A bandage is wrapped around his midsection.
Resunotek: But I owe him my life.
I should at least try to make him comfortable.
Ichiro: Father…?
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